[225] Chapter 17 Continuation of the Voyage into the backcountry: The Author kills a Buffalo: Discoverer Lost: White Deer: Discovery of Gypsum: Description of the Author's Bed: Description of a Mine of Rock Crystal: Fertility of the Land: Abundance of Game: A Plaster Quarry

We walked for several days without finding anything which engaged my attention or was relevant to the subject of my journey; my curiosity was not at all satisfied.

On the other hand, however, this was compensated for by the charming land that we travelled through, which might justly inspire the most gifted of landscape painters. My imagination was delighted with the sight of the fine countryside, diversified with large and agreeable meadows and adorned with thickets planted by the hand of nature; and [226] interspersed with gentle ridges and dales adorned with woods, which serves as a retreat for the most timorous animals, as the thickets screen the buffalo from the abundant dews of the country.

For a long time I had wanted to kill a buffalo with my own hands; the meat of those which my travelling companions killed didn't seem to me as succulent, nor the taste so fine, as I imagined must be the meat of that which I would kill. I declared to all that the first herd of buffalo that we saw, I wanted to fulfil my desire to kill one. A day did not pass without seeing several herds, of which the smallest were in excess of 130 or 150, and therefore I was soon given the occasion to satisfy myself.

The next morning we espied a herd of upwards of 200. The wind was as I would have wished, it blew towards us from the herd, which is a great advantage in this chase, because if the wind blows from behind [227] towards the buffalo, they will scent you and flee before you can come within gunshot of them, whereas when the wind blows from the herd towards the hunters, they do not flee until they can distinguish you by sight; and then what greatly favors your coming very near to them, is that the frizzy hair, which falls between their horns and over their eyes, is so thick that it greatly obscures their vision. In this manner I approached within gunshot of them, and chose the one which I wanted; and I had almost the temerity to compare myself in this occasion with one of the patriarchs of the Old Testament, when they designated, in the midst of their numerous herds, the bull and the goat which they wanted to sacrifice or to eat for their family's dinner. They took still greater pleasure in this if entertaining guests.

I chose one of the fattest of these buffalo, took aim at the side of the shoulder, and it fell down dead. The naturals who watched me were ready to fire, if I should only wound it lightly, because in the case of such a minor wound, these [228] animals are apt to turn on the hunter who has injured them.

When they saw it die from one shot, and all the others take flight, they said to me, laughing, "You have killed a male, how are you to make tallow?" I replied that I had done it on purpose, to teach them the manner of making him good meat, though a male.

I caused his belly to be opened quite warm, the entrails to be taken out directly, the hump, tongue, and filets to be cut out, one of the filets to be laid on the coals, and a taste given to all; and they agreed that the meat was juicy, and of an exquisite flavor.

I then took occasion to remonstrate to them, that if, instead of killing the cows, as was their custom, they killed the bulls, they would find a great difference in the profit they derived from it: a good commerce with the French in tallow, with which the bulls abound; that bull’s flesh is far more delicate and tender than cow’s; a third advantage would be selling of the skins at a higher rate, since they would much better; finally, this kind of game, so advantageous to [229] the country, would thereby escape being destroyed; since by killing the cows, the breed of these animals is greatly impaired.

My companions noticed that I liked the soup, and while they very much liked the bread, they were so obliging as to pass it on, preferring to make do with dried meat than to see me deprived of it. I say this in refernce to a soup that I made of the broth boiled from the marrow-bones of this buffalo I had killed. I found the flavor exquisite, but a little fatty. The rest of the broth served to make maize gruel, called Sagamity, which to my taste surpassed the best dish in France. The hump on the back would have graced the table of a prince.

In the route I held, I kept more on the sides of the hills than on the plains. Above some of these hillsides, I found in various places treeless buttes, where there lay exposed a firm and compact clay, or pure matrix, of the same type as that of Lapis Calminaris. Those well-versed in Mineralogy understand what I mean to say. The little grass which grows there, was observed to droop, as did also three or four misshapen trees, no bigger [230] than one’s leg. I cut down one of these and saw saw to my surprise it was upwards of sixty years old. The neighbouring country was fertile, in proportion to its distance from this spot. Near that place we saw game of every kind, and in plenty, but never around the summit.

We crossed the Missisippi several times upon Cajeaux (rafts, or floats, made of several bundles of canes, laid across each other; a kind of jury-rigged pontoon boat) in order to take a view of mountains which had raised my curiosity. I observed that either side of the river had its advantages; but that the West side is better watered, and appeared also to be more fruitful, both in minerals and with regard to agriculture, for which it seems much better suited than the East side.

Notwithstanding our precaution to make signals, one of my scouts happened one day to stray, because the weather was foggy, so that he did not return at night to our hut. I was very uneasy about this, and could not sleep, because he had not returned, though the smoke signals [231] had been repeated till night closed. I then had the fire set on a low prairie which had escaped the summer fires, although all the others had been burned before our departure.

At first light I resumed the signals and repeated them continually until at about nine he showed up at our camp.

I told him upon his arrival that his absence had caused me much worry: I gave him a shot of liquor and told him to rest a bit before eating.

After a quarter of an hour of rest he got up, came to sit near me, and said: “I have no hunger to eat, but a hunger to talk to you; open your ears.

“Yesterday, a little after your signal at the middle of the day, I saw many deer together, who walked at a calm pace, like warriors. At the head was an all-white deer, and none passed in front of him. I had already heard from our old ones that there were white deer who led others, [232] but I had never seen any. They walked straight to a thick glen as if to cross it. I went down quickly to the bottom to cut them off, but they continued along the high ground without descending. I followed them for some time in order to cut them off and to kill the white deer, to bring you the skin; they crossed some high ground covered in small rocks that cut my shoes and my feet. I left them and I brought you these rocks, and at the same time I became lost. It was not until this morning that I saw the smoke from far off.”

The stones I received with pleasure, because I had not yet seen any in all this country, only a hard red freestone in a cliff on the Missisippi. After carefully examining those which my discoverer brought me, I found they were a gypsum. I took home some pieces, and on my return examined them more attentively; found them to be very clear, transparent, and friable; when calcined, they turned extremely white, and with them I made some factitious marble. This gave me [233] hopes that this country, producing Plaster of Paris, might, besides, have stones for building, and in any case the plaster was very useful.

I asked him if he remembered the place well enough to lead me there; he told me he was sure to find it again. I wanted to see the spot myself. We set out about noon, and traveled for about three leagues before we came to it. I rested on the mountain, and we stopped near some woods in a gorge to make camp. I examined the spot, which to me appeared to be a large quarry of Plaster, which would one day make the Colony very happy.

As for the white deer, I had heard from my native slave that while traveling with her father to this land, for he had relatives among the Attakapas, she had seen many deer in herds, and that as he led her and her mother, they were surprised to see one herd led by a white deer. Her father had told her that that was rare, but she had seen two others several years ago. As I did not put much faith in the story this girl told me [234], I asked older natives, who told me that it was the truth, but that such things were rare, and found only in countries not frequented by the hunters. Also, that the custom was to call this animal the Noble Deer. Being thus warned, this story of discovery did not surprise me at all. On the contrary, it confirmed the idea that I already had.

The wind being set in for rain, we resolved to put ourselves under shelter. I agreed freely, feeling a little tired despite carrying nothing. I assumed that my natives, who never ceased to carry things, must need some rest. It is necessary in such voyages to lead men with care and humanity. The place where the bad weather overtook us was very fit to set up at. On going out to hunt, we discovered at five hundred paces off, in the defile, or narrow pass, a brook of a very clear water, a very commodious watering-place for the buffaloes, which were in great numbers all around us.

My natives soon raised a cabin, well-secured to the North [235]. As we resolved to continue there for eights days at least, they made it so close as to keep out the cold: in the night, I felt nothing of the severity of the North wind, though I lay but lightly covered.

My bed consisted of a bear’s skin, and two robes or coats of buffalo; the bear skin, with the flesh side undermost, being laid on leaves, and the pile uppermost by way of straw-bed; one of the buffalo coats folded double by way of a feather-bed; one half of the other under me served for a mattress, and the other over me for a coverlet: three canes, or boughs, bent to a semicircle, one at the head, another in the middle, and a third at the feet, supported a cloth which formed my tesser and curtains, and secured me from the injuries of the air, and the stings of gnats and mosquitoes. My natives had their ordinary hunting and traveling beds [236], which consist of a deer skin and a buffalo coat, which they always carry with them, when they expect to lie out of their villages.

We rested nine days, and regaled ourselves with choice buffalo, turkey, partridge, pheasants, and others; I killed these last ones, the natives never being able to shoot any bird in flight.

The discovery I had made of the plaster inspired me to search out, during our stay, all the places for many leagues around. I was at last tired of thrashing about such fine plains, without discovering the least thing, and I had resolved to go far to the North, when at the noon-signal the scout ahead waited to show me a shining and sharp stone, of the length and size of one’s thumb, and as square as a joiner could have made a piece of wood of the same size. I imagined it might be a rock-crystal; to be assured thereof, I took a large musket flint in my left hand with the thick end upwards, and I struck it with one of the edges of crystal as one would do with a block of steel, but drew much more fire than the finest steel [237]. Each of my companions wanted to do the same, and we only stopped when the stone was no longer in the condition to work well; however, notwithstanding the many strokes I gave, the piece of crystal was not in the least scratched or streaked.

We dined in this spot. I examined these stones, and found pieces of different magnitudes, some square, others with six equal faces, even and smooth like mirrors, highly transparent, without any veins or spots. Some of these pieces jutted out of the earth, like ends of beams, two feet and upward in length; a considerable number others were between seven to nine inches, particularly those with six panes or facets. There was a great number of a middling and smaller sort: my people wanted to carry some with them; but I dissuaded them from this design by saying to them “What good will it do to carry all that stuff? I admit that these stones are quite pretty to look at, [238] but they’re also harder than iron or the best-tempered steel. With what would one work upon them? What use can these stones have, if they are not workable?” I threw aside all the ones that I held, with the exception of one which I concealed, without their perceiving it. I made them throw aside their stones as things which were not worth the trouble to carry. My reason was that I feared that some Frenchman seeing the stones would persuade the Naturals, by the force of gifts, to reveal the location of this place.

For my part, I carefully observed the latitude, and followed, on setting out, a particular point of the compass, to come to a river which I knew. I took that route, under pretence of going to a certain nation to procure dry provisions, which we were in want of, and which are of great help on a journey.

We arrived, after seven days march, at that nation, by whom we were well received. My hunters brought in daily many duck and teal, and I hardly ate any, but of the latter [239]. We made ourselves cold meal and gruel to raise our energy. I bargained with the natives of the place for a large pirogue of black walnut, to go down their river, and afterwards to go up the Mississippi.

I had a strong inclination to go up still higher north, in order to discover mines. We embarked, and the eleventh day of our passage I caused the pirogue to be unladen of everything, and concealed in the water, which was then low; this way I did not fear anyone would take it. I loaded seven men with the things we had; because the discoverers only carried their guns and beds, they changed every day and three others replaced them.

Matters thus arranged, we set out according to the intention I had to go to the northward. I observed every day, with new pleasure, the more we advanced to that quarter, the more beautiful and fertile the country was, [240] abounding in game of every kind: the herds of deer are numerous; at every turn we meet with them; and not a day passed without seeing herds of buffaloes, sometimes five or six, with upwards of an hundred in each. Other species of games disappeared at sight of the voyager, as if the presence of their King gave them a respect to the point of not being about to bear his gaze.

In such journeys as these we always take up our night’s lodging near wood and water, where we stop in plenty of time to do the cooking. Then at sun-set, when every thing in nature is hushed, we were charmed with the enchanting warbling of different birds; so that one would be inclined to say, they reserved this favorable moment for the melody and harmony of their song, to celebrate, undisturbed and at their ease, the benefits of the Creator. One sees their desire to render their thanksgiving to the All-Powerful, who has given them good food and preserved them from the claws of birds of prey [241], at the sight of which these gentle hosts of the woods seem to be mortified. They regard the departure of the sparrowhawk as a second life, for which they have great care to testify their gratitude toward the Supreme Being, through the most tender airs and diversified music.

In the same way the next day, from dawn to sunrise, they recommence their songs and are happy to ring out their joy at what the light has given them, by which they hope to escape the murderous claws of their enemies, as the day before.

But if in the woods and near springs and brooks one has the pleasure of hearing the melodious songs of birds, one only has to make camp on the banks of the rivers, or lakes, to be assured of spending a good part of the night without sleeping, due to the hideous noise of the cranes, flamingos, wild geese, herons, saw-bills, and ducks [242]. One is deafened by their continual cries; the ducks above seem to make themselves heard, if only to warn travelers to always keep a guard and to wake him from sleep if necessary.